1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to paint ball guns and more particularly to a pneumatic firing device for a paint ball gun.
2. Description of Related Art
A paint ball gun is the main piece of equipment in the sport of paint ball. Guns use an expanding gas, such as compressed air or carbon dioxide (CO2) to propel paint balls through the barrel. Paint ball guns can fire in rapid succession a relatively large number of paint balls in a short period of time. A magazine stores the paint balls until the balls are delivered to the gun firing chamber. The guns use compressed gas as the propellant, and are usually triggered by a user squeezing a conventionally shaped gun trigger. When the gun user repeatedly squeezes the trigger, the gun should continue to fire paint balls as rapidly as possible. Guns may be manually loaded before each shot, but most are either semi-automatic, where each time the trigger is pulled a paint ball is fired, or fully automatic, where the balls are fired as quickly as the gun is capable of for as long as the trigger is pulled.
Quite unlike conventional explosive-propelled munitions, paint balls are relatively round and have an exterior formed from a semi-rigid gelatinous compound. The gelatinous compound is known to be affected somewhat by such variables as temperature and relative humidity. During a firing sequence, paint balls on occasion lodge against each other or other objects and block the passageway to the firing chamber, resulting in a jam. While jamming is not new, knowledge from explosive munitions magazines is of little use with the very different paint balls.
The invention described below aims to minimize jams and provides other beneficial advantages to firing mechanism of a conventional paint ball gun.